If the budget is not finally adopted at the beginning of the financial year, Article 78b of the ECSC Treaty, Article 204 of the EEC Treaty and Article 178 of the Euratom Treaty shall apply to commitment and payment of expenditure of a kind already approved in principle in the last budget duly adopted.
Commitments may be entered into up to one quarter of the total appropriations in respect of the relevant chapter for the preceding financial year increased by one-twelth for each completed month; these commitments may not, however, exceed the limit of the appropriations provided for in the draft budget or, in the absence thereof, in the preliminary draft budget.
1. The management of commitments is sometimes subject to considerable delays and the control of ongoing commitments must therefore be strengthened.
2. The legal commitments made by the institution and the accounting commitments submitted to financial control and recorded in the central accounts must correspond exactly, while leaving a reasonable length of time for the conclusion of the legal commitments in cases where the Commission's decisions count as global budgetary commitments.
